


Forgiveness

by Delphi



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Drama, Gen, Late at Night, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-09-29
Updated: 2004-09-29
Packaged: 2017-10-06 11:12:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delphi/pseuds/Delphi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severus finds forgiveness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forgiveness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bow/gifts).



He struck her, once. Long ago, when they were both much younger, and he might make excuses for it—he didn't mean to, he was angry, she made him do it—but it made no difference. He had struck her, and in all the time since, she hadn't so much as met his eyes when they passed in the corridor.

Until tonight.

Severus didn't hear her approach, lost in his own mind as he sat on a bench in an empty courtyard. Back from a hell he thought he'd left behind fourteen years ago, the Dark Mark still dimly pulsing under his skin. Unwilling—nay, unable—to go inside until it slept.

It was the faintest sound that made him turn, and he nearly jumped out of his skin when she made herself known. Then he froze, staring down at the scrawny, dust-colored cat in his lap.

She sniffed him very carefully, his face, his clothes, seeming to linger over his left arm. She paused, then turned herself around and curled up against him.

Severus looked at her for a long moment; he hesitantly touched her fur. She began to purr, a rusty sound. And he sat there with her long after the night turned cold, taking forgiveness where he could find it.


End file.
